The present invention relates to an instructional method and system for sports. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for teaching young children to play team sports.
Team sports such as basketball, football, soccer, and the like are played with two opposing squads, one of which is in an offensive posture and the other of which is in a defensive posture at any moment during play. For league play, each of such opposing squads includes a specified number of players, each having a specific playing xe2x80x9cassignmentxe2x80x9d while on the playing field (e.g., basketball center, football quarterback, soccer forward, etc.).
Certain duties or responsibilities are typically associated with a player""s playing assignment. For team sports in which the same players are on the field for both offensive and defensive play (e.g., basketball, soccer, etc.), playing assignments will necessarily include both offensive and defensive duties. For team sports in which there are separate offensive and defensive squads (e.g., football, etc.), the playing assignments are either primarily offensive (e.g., quarterback, wide receiver, etc.) or primarily defensive (e.g., middle linebacker, safety, etc.) The complementary defensive/offensive postures of opposing squads gives rise to natural pairings or associations between players of such opposing squads. Taking football as an example, such a pairing exists between cornerbacks of the team on defense and wide receivers of the team on offense.
At a high school or more advanced level of play, players do not have difficulty in understanding and executing their assigned duties. Such understanding and execution is rarely exhibited, however, by young children playing such sports. Rather, confusion reigns. And such confusion, which results in part from an inadequate understanding of the game being played and for the duties associated with their playing assignments, exposes young children and children with learning disabilities to preventable safety risks.
One of such safety risks involves injury from intentional contact. Children will often ignore their playing assignment and shove, trip, tackle and jump on opposing teammates, or even their own teammates, to get the ballxe2x80x94or the child that has the ball. And while team sports such as football, hockey, basketball and the like do properly involve physical contact (e.g., tackling, checking, picking, etc.), the type of the contact more typically exhibited by such child athletes is perhaps best characterized as a xe2x80x9cpersonal foul.xe2x80x9d
Beyond the risk of injury from deliberate contact, there is also a risk of injury from unintentional contact. It will be appreciated that ten or more children converging on a specific area of the playing field or court to xe2x80x9cget the ballxe2x80x9d tends to result in many unintentional collisions.
There is a dearth of sports instructional systems or methods for young children in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,651 is directed to a method of position color identification for coaching in multi-player athletic environments. According to that patent, a plurality of color-keyed vests are used to distinguish individual player positions. During a practice session, one of either the defensive or offensive squad wears such vests. The patent indicates that such position color identification allows a coach to readily identify individual positions and players during rapid play action to isolate mistakes without having to review video of the action, which is time consuming, expensive and inefficient.
Accordingly, a need remains for a system and method for use in teaching young children or those with learning disabilities to play team sports while significantly decreasing the incidence of injury.
In accordance with the illustrated embodiments of the present invention, players on one squad are xe2x80x9clinked toxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cassociated withxe2x80x9d players on an opposing squad (when man-to-man defense is being taught) or a region of the playing field (when zone defense is being taught). Such a link or association is provided through xe2x80x9ctags,xe2x80x9d that are indicative of a playing assignment (when in use).
In one embodiment, wherein man-to-man defense is used, tags are provided to players on a first squad. In various embodiments, the tag is a headband, an armband, a waistband, a xe2x80x9cflagxe2x80x9d that attaches to a player""s jersey, or the like. Each tag comprises a xe2x80x9cmarkerxe2x80x9d that distinguishes a given tag from at least some of the other tags provided to other players on the first squad. In various embodiments, the marker is a color, symbol, shape, pattern and combinations thereof.
Players on a second opposing squad are likewise provided with a tag. Those tags xe2x80x9ccorrespond,xe2x80x9d as a function of a player""s playing assignment, to a tag provided to the player with a xe2x80x9ccomplementaryxe2x80x9d playing assignment on the first squad. In the present context, xe2x80x9ccomplementaryxe2x80x9d is intended to denote a pairing between offensive and defensive players/playing assignments such as wherein the defensive playing assignment is to xe2x80x9cguardxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccoverxe2x80x9d a player having a particular offensive playing assignment (e.g., in football: wide receiver and corner back, etc.).
The above-noted xe2x80x9ccorrespondencexe2x80x9d between tags is provided through visual association. Such visual association is promoted through the use of similar or identical markers on such tags. For example, two players having complementary playing assignments may both be provided with a red tag. In that manner, the players of the squad on defense can readily determine which player on the opposing squad to cover.
In a second embodiment, wherein zone defense is used, first tags are used to demarcate regions of the playing field. Such regions or zones indicate a portion of the playing field that a player must defend when that player""s squad is in a defensive posture. In such an embodiment, the first tag is realized in a form suitable for demarcating a region of the playing field. For example, in one embodiment, the tag is a xe2x80x9cline(s)xe2x80x9d, such as may be formed from powder (e.g., lime), to demarcate the zones. As in the first embodiment, the first tag comprises a xe2x80x9cmarkerxe2x80x9d that distinguishes a given first tag for defining a first zone from other first tags defining other zones. For example, in one embodiment, the marker is the color of the lines.
Players are provided with a second tag as a function of playing assignment. In particular, a player having a playing assignment that requires providing defensive coverage in a particular zone is given a second tag that is visually associative of the first tag that defines that zone. For example, if a zone is defined by white lines, the second tag provided to the player can be, for example, a white armband, etc.
The invention provides coaches with a means to help children understand and follow the duties of their playing assignment. Such understanding will improve discipline on the field-of-play and improve the level of play. And, most importantly, such increased understanding and discipline will decrease the incidence of injuries caused by the confusion hitherto prevailing when young children play team sports.